CONFERENCE OF MEN AND WOMEN DELEGATES AT A NATIONAL CONVENTION IN 1920]

=National Enfranchisement.=—­After that, events moved rapidly.  The great state of New York adopted equal suffrage in 1917.  Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Michigan swung into line the following year; several other states, by legislative action, gave women the right to vote for President.  In the meantime the suffrage battle at Washington grew intense.  Appeals and petitions poured in upon Congress and the President.  Militant suffragists held daily demonstrations in Washington.  On September 30, 1918, President Wilson, who, two years before, had opposed federal action and endorsed suffrage by state adoption only, went before Congress and urged the passage of the suffrage amendment to the Constitution.  In June, 1919, the requisite two-thirds vote was secured; the resolution was carried and transmitted to the states for ratification.  On August 28, 1920, the thirty-sixth state, Tennessee, approved the amendment, making three-fourths of the states as required by the Constitution.  Thus woman suffrage became the law of the land.  A new political democracy had been created.  The age of agitation was closed and the epoch of responsible citizenship opened.

=General References=

Edith Abbott, Women in Industry.

C.P.  Gilman, Woman and Economics.

I.H.  Harper, Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony.

E.R.  Hecker, Short History of Woman’s Rights.

S.B.  Anthony and I.H.  Harper, History of Woman Suffrage (4 vols.).

J.W.  Taylor, Before Vassar Opened.

A.H.  Shaw, The Story of a Pioneer.

=Research Topics=

=The Rise of the Woman Suffrage Movement.=—­McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol.  VIII, pp. 116-121; K. Porter, History of Suffrage in the United States, pp. 135-145.

=The Development of the Suffrage Movement.=—­Porter, pp. 228-254; Ogg, National Progress (American Nation Series), pp. 151-156 and p. 382.

=Women’s Labor in the Colonial Period.=—­E.  Abbott, Women in Industry, pp. 10-34.

=Women and the Factory System.=—­Abbott, pp. 35-62.

=Early Occupations for Women.=—­Abbott, pp. 63-85.

=Women’s Wages.=—­Abbott, pp. 262-316.

=Questions=

1.  Why were women involved in the reform movements of the new century?

2.  What is history?  What determines the topics that appear in written history?

3.  State the position of women under the old common law.

4.  What part did women play in the intellectual movement that preceded the American Revolution?

5.  Explain the rise of the discussion of women’s rights.

6.  What were some of the early writings about women?

7.  Why was there a struggle for educational opportunities?